Fire Movie India

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Eliz Mettert

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Aug 3, 2024, 2:42:46 PM8/3/24

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Earthmovers remove burnt debris the day after a fire broke out in an amusement park in Rajkot, India, Sunday, May 26, 2024. A massive fire damaged a large part of the park on Saturday, killing more than twenty people and injuring some others, news reports said. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Firefighters stand next to burnt debris the day after a fire broke out in an amusement park in Rajkot, India, Sunday, May 26, 2024. A massive fire damaged a large part of the park on Saturday, killing more than twenty people and injuring some others, news reports said. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

A firefighter walks past burnt debris the day after a fire broke out in an amusement park in Rajkot, India, Sunday, May 26, 2024. A massive fire damaged a large part of the park on Saturday, killing more than twenty people and injuring some others, news reports said. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Policemen stand next to burnt debris the day after a fire broke out in an amusement park in Rajkot, India, Sunday, May 26, 2024. A massive fire damaged a large part of the park on Saturday, killing more than twenty people and injuring some others, news reports said. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

An earthmover removes burnt debris the day after a fire broke out in an amusement park in Rajkot, India, Sunday, May 26, 2024. A massive fire damaged a large part of the park on Saturday, killing more than twenty people and injuring some others, news reports said. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

A firefighter walks next to burnt debris the day after a fire broke out in an amusement park in Rajkot, India, Sunday, May 26, 2024. A massive fire damaged a large part of the park on Saturday, killing more than twenty people and injuring some others, news reports said. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

A firefighter moves among burnt debris the day after a fire broke out in an amusement park in Rajkot, India, Sunday, May 26, 2024. A massive fire damaged a large part of the park on Saturday, killing more than twenty people and injuring some others, news reports said. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

A man breaks down as he waits with others for information about their family members at a government hospital hours after a massive fire killed 27 people, including children, who were enjoying a weekend visit to an amusement park in the city of Rajkot, India, Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Relatives of 21-year-old Surpalsinh Jadeja break down after hearing of his death at a government hospital hours after a massive fire killed 27 people, including children, who were enjoying a weekend visit to an amusement park in the city of Rajkot, India, Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

A man holds his cellphone to show a photograph of his cousin Jignesh Gadhvi, who worked at an amusement park, hours after a massive fire killed 27 people, including children, who were enjoying a weekend visit to the amusement park in the city of Rajkot, India, Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Bhargav said the cause of the fire was under investigation, but there was some ongoing construction work and a spark from a welding machine might have ignited the fire. He added that the rescue operation was over and now teams were clearing the debris.

Fires are common in India, where builders and residents often flout building laws and safety codes. Activists say builders frequently cut corners on safety to save money and have accused civic authorities of negligence and apathy.

In 2019, a fire caused by an electrical short circuit engulfed a building in the Indian capital and killed 43 people. In 2022, a fire in a four-story commercial building in New Delhi killed at least 27.

In December of 1992, my family stood on the balcony of their Bombay apartment and watched as the apartment building across the street burned. Eyes wide with horror, hearts beating like fists against their chests, they watched as the flames rose higher, sheltered in the protective darkness of their own apartment from the eyes of the mad mob that danced on the street below.

I had left India many years before the outbreak of the Hindu-Muslim riots of 1992. And so I was not an eye witness to the madness that briefly seized what had erstwhile been India's most cosmopolitan, secular city. But I heard the stories in the weeks that followed and I could see that fire on the streets of my childhood as vividly as if I had been there that night. And when I visited Bombay a few months later, I could see for myself what the fire had taken. Did I imagine that my father's index finger trembled as he pointed to the space where three tall coconut trees had once stood? Those trees, part of the burned building's garden, had been a source of inspiration for many an adolescent poem, a vital part of my childhood landscape. Sitting on the balcony in the evenings, I would watch those trees--whom I'd always thought of as the Three Sisters--sway and rustle in the breeze. And now the Three Sisters were gone.